A colorful cardboard box in the Laramie Plains Museum (LPM) collection is labeled “Kickapoo Indian Guide to Health and Longevity.” It’s not clear what was originally in the box; it did have some cut-outs of “Indians,” their horses, tents and blankets that would have appealed to children. Possibly it once had some of the “herbs, barks and roots” advertised on the box as remedies. Turns out that the Kickapoo herbal concoction was made in New Haven, Connecticut; there was nothing “Indian” about it except the name. There is a real Kickapoo tribe that ultimately landed on an Oklahoma reservation, but it gave no medical secrets to the New Haven company.

Airmail comes to America. In January 1920, the USPS announced plans for a coast-to-coast service, following existing routes to Chicago, then railroad tracks from Chicago to Omaha. In Omaha, the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) tracks would be used to San Francisco. Flying would be done in daylight hours, as pilots had no navigational devices and had to see landmarks like the tracks, which pilots called their “iron compass.”

Why pianos? There were a lot of reasons why a piano was and is a difficult status symbol.It is heavy, expensive, has a tendency to go out of tune in a way that only a skilled piano tuner can remedy, and requires experts to move, even to a different floor in the same house.

U. S. mail delivered by carriers for the first time in Laramie. How did it come about?

Wyoming’s Centennial Valley boasts many beautiful old ranch sites, but one of the most picturesque and historically significant is the Vee Bar Ranch.

Learn about one of the best football programs in Wyoming high school history.

Tom Horn and the Iron Mountain Ranch

Wyoming’s workman’s compensation laws grew of of too many on-the-job injuries.

Laramie’s Maennerchor Society organized for singing: Good times were in abundance at its entertainments

The New York cast bells that were placed in St. Matthew’s Cathedral have an interesting story to tell.

Among the “unrespectable;” walking tour leads
To some recollections about Laramie brothels

In 1851 the Victorians discovered a way to take the viewer to a different place. It may not seem all that spectacular to us today with virtual reality and other interactive medias but for the Victorians it was truly a life changing experience. The stereograph: a device used to view a photograph in three dimensions was produced for anyone who could afford them.

In May of 1870, news of the upcoming census appeared in the Laramie Daily Sentinel. “Census-takers get two cents for every name taken, ten cents for every farm, fifteen cents for every productive establishment of industry, two cents for every deceased person, and two per cent of the whole amount for names enumerated for social statistics, and ten cents per mile for travel.” They would be paid only after they completely enumerated their area, and their forms were accepted.

Most who know about the history of the American Frontier are familiar with the demise of the buffalo. Herds numbering millions were wiped out within a relatively short time. A similar fate befell deer, elk and especially antelope in Wyoming. Early efforts to stem the slaughter by the legislature were largely ineffective.

In the 1950’s the United States suffered from a large outbreak of polio.

In 1918 the “Spanish Flu” struck Albany County Very Hard.

Laramie’s “Stink Lake” and bumpy roads are do to underlying geology.

On September 15, 1870, a seemingly improbable announcement appeared on page 3 of the Laramie Daily Sentinel: “TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN—All those who are interested in the formation of a Literary Society are invited to be present at the Schoolhouse on Tuesday evening, Sept. 19th, 1870, at 7½ o’clock.”

UW students’ adventures in Yellowstone, 1899